ORV’s losses are hunters’ gains

Off-road vehicle drivers lost a small portion of the routes they can ride on the Colville National Forest this week, but disabled hunters are gaining ground.

Colville officials released a long-awaited 2008 Motor Vehicle Use Map this week, designating 611 miles of routes open to non-highway-legal vehicles, such as all-terrain vehicles and off-road motorcycles.

While many ORV enthusiasts hoped for an increase in mileage this year, the map removes ATV and dirt bike use from 37.2 miles of roads, said Franklin Pemberton, forest spokesman. The map is considered the official document of where motorized vehicles can be used on the forest.

Release of the 2008 map was delayed as national forest officials worked through the mix of federal laws and Washington laws that govern travel on the Colville Forest, Pemberton said.

The reduction stems from safety liabilities of mixing “not-street-legal vehicles” such as ATVs and dirt bikes on roads with fast-moving vehicles including logging trucks, he said.

“The travel-planning process continues, and there could be changes for the 2009 map, which we plan to have out in the spring,” he said.

While the vehicle use maps stem from a 2005 federal rule that limits motorized vehicles to designated routes on national forests, a Bush administration policy to expand hunting on public lands is paying off for the region’s disabled hunters.

Dave Bostick, the Colville’s Disabled Hunter Access Program coordinator, has been working with sportsmen’s and conservation groups to increase the number of gated roads that can be opened for vehicle use by sportsmen with disabled-hunter permits.

The Forest hosted some 160 disabled hunter parties last year and upgrades planned for next year should give the Colville the largest program in the Pacific Northwest Region, Bostick said.

Upgrade plans include:

•Establishing six disabled-hunter routes with at least one route per county and ranger district on roads otherwise closed to motorized travel;

•Gradually replacing pre-2008 routes;

•Maintaining disabled-hunter routes and improving wildlife habitat in those areas;

Disabled-hunter routes available this fall include the Boundary Mountain route in Ferry County and the Middle Fork Calsipell Creek route in Pend Oreille County. A one-day only draw-only permit to Snyder Hill in Pend Oreille County has been authorized during the modern firearm elk season.

Information about the program is available online and at (509) 384-7000.